Jubilee Bunny, On Route - Pangamateng, Botswana

sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Apr 3, 2008, 6:29 am
My name is Jubilee Bunny! I'm a happy little bunny that no one found during Easter time, so I've been left, to suffocate in all the huge toys that were covering me and my identical twin - Sara had to choose and she chose me, but it was okay with my sister because he was having fun with the other toys, whereas I wasn't. I was ready to have a family, and little did I know... to travel the world!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/jubilee_bunny.jpg

My mom offered me a good home and a nice time traveling the world and I jumped at the idea, literally, I was more than happy to see the world. So off I go, my mom says I'll be traveling to India as my first stop, and even seeing the Taj Majal! How exciting is that? That's not something a little brown bunny like me sees everyday! So I'm quite excited, but I'm nervous too!

My mom says if you'd like to host me ever please to contact her and she'll put you on the list - I'd love to visit everywhere, especially Europe, mom's told me all about everything you can see there! I hope to visit you soon, and please keep me safe, I'm scared and I don't want to get lost! :-)
Mosuha


Posted Apr 23, 2008, 4:56 pm
Mooommmy...

how exciting, I arrived safe and happy in Chennai India....

First I went straight to the toyvoyagers room at my host's flat, to meet all the other tvs.

After refreshing  and relaxing they told me about the things they already saw in india and all of them said, at the moment is the hottest saison of all, so they don't really like to go out during the day, when it's around 40 degrees....

I can understand that, but I am looking forward to go out and explore the city, and my host promised me, to motivate all of us tomorrow for a little tour through the town.

And look Mommy, I already found a new little friend.
It's a little puppy, his name is "Sushi".

Mosuha


Posted Apr 29, 2008, 7:15 am
Hello Mommy,

so, on saturday we had a great day!

All together we went to an Health and Beauty Expo at "Valluvar Kottam", a goverment building for special events.

It's a very beautiful building with an amazing tower, which should be a chariot. But at the moment you are not allowed to go inside the tower, because a lot of honeybees build their houses there. It's too dangerous to got near there....

The expo was quiet interesting, we lerned a lot about healthy eating.... As if I didn't know before, that it is good for you, to eat fresh vegetables like carrots.....  :rolleyes:

After that and a nice lunch, we went to the "holly mother mary" church. It was very interesting, but also such a hooooot day...wow.... I felt like melting away.... pfuee.....

Now we have to plan our trip to the Taj Mahal in detail.....
c u, mommy,
Kisses....
Mosuha


Posted May 9, 2008, 11:52 pm
At the moment we are very busy with planing the trip at the end of the month, but it's pretty exciting....

All together we will be 10 tvs and 3 to be released into the wilderness...

First we will fly into the north to Jaipur, also known as the "PINK CITY" at may, 24th. There will will stay for 2 nights at a very beautiful, old palace, which is now a hotel and we will have a look at the city....

After that, we'll drive by car to Agra and visit the Taj Mahal (juhuuu) and even stay one night at a nice hotel, in a room from where you can even see the Taj....

The next day we'll drive by car to Delhi, the capital of india, to go for sight seeing and SHOPPING.... yeah....
There we'll stay for 3 nights.

Then we'll fly with a very small plane to Kullu, at the state of Himachal Pradesh, in the himalaya mountains.
We booked a hotel in Manali, we'll probably go for wild water rafting, see some waterfalls and beautiful mountains....

By car we all will drive during a three days ride to Keylong, than to Sarchu and it ends at Leh, in the state of Kashmire....
We'll be very near to Tibet and surely see some buddism monastarys, we'll even camp in the mountains and we'll drive the highest motorable road of the world... wooohooo...
Near Leh we will stay at some local people's home, which is a special goverment project to save the snowleopard.

At june, 9th we'll first fly to Delhi and from there back home to Chennai...

Be sure, I will take a looooooot of pictures for you guys at home... I just can't wait to start... And I'll look out for a nice souvenier for my mommy....

Meanwhile it's got full at my host's place, there a many tvs to join us.... So we decided to travel by two.... so every tv has a partner at the journey to take care of each other and to not get lost....

My partner is Mary Luise, and she is soooooooooo nice.... I think, I found a very good friend in her....

SO, we are looking forward and will surely have a great time...

Kiss and hug you, mommy!
Mosuha


Posted May 9, 2008, 11:56 pm
Today it was again over 40 degree, but anyway, I joined in to visit another, very famous church here in Chennai...

It's name is "St. Thomas Church" and it is the oldest one in the south of india and the legend says, that the body of St. Thomas is laying to it's feed.

And lucky us, as we went in, a very friendly couple were just got married and we all wished them good luck and all the best.

I was even allowed to make a picture of them, to show you a traditional indian wedding dress....
Mosuha


Posted May 23, 2008, 8:30 pm
Finally, we all were waiting so long for it.....

Tomorrow we will start our trip into the north of India.....
jiiiipppiiihheee....

Jaipur - Agra (Taj Mahal) - Delhi - Manali - Keylong- Sarchu - Leh ..........

We will be back at the 9th of June.....

Today we all helped packing the suitcase, everyone is now in charge of something.....

Mary and I are in charge of one tv's dairy.....

Thanks to god, we don't have to travel in the suitcase, we have our very own, very comfortable backpack..... (as comfortable as if can be, with such a travelbunch!)

We'll surely have a lot of fun..... I will tell you everything later.....

BYE BYE.....
...we are off.....
Mosuha


Posted Jun 10, 2008, 1:01 pm
Monday we spent on the road....

Because there were some people called Gujjar, who demonstrated in a town near Agra and killed several others, the normal road from Jaipur to Agra was closed, so we had to take the long way over Delhi....

It took us 10 hours, so we arrived in our hotel in Agra again very late.

But it was not as boring as it sounds. We saw a lot of funny vehicles at the so called HIGHWAY....

And we took a rest next to a friendly group of cows... I also was allowed to ride on an indian elephant.
Do you see me, mommy?!
Mosuha


Posted Jun 10, 2008, 1:13 pm
Hi Mommy...

we are back from the big holidays....
that was really amazing and I saw a lot, what I now would like to show you, step by step....

First we had to fly from Chennai to Mumbai (Bombay) and from there to Jaipur. I was allowed to sit in the plane next to my hosts and I had a great view from the window, when we flew over Mumbai. In fact, in this city there life about 19 Million people and all you can see, when you go down to the airport are these slum- houses, where all the very poor people life.

Than we had to wait 5 hours, because our flight to Jaipur was canceled.... how boring that was!!!

We arrived Jaipur very late.
We enjoyed the warm welcome at the beautifull Jai Mahal Palace Hotel, ate something and went straight to bed.

The others slept very long, but I crawl out the bed in the morning to explore the hotel, because it was so beautiful!

Later we went into the city.

Near by Jaipur there is the big fort-palace of Amber, a beautiful, ethereal example of Rajput architecture, rises from a rocky mountainside.

Amber was the ancient capitel of Jaipur state. Construction of the fort was begun in 1592 by Maharaja Man Singh and it was later extended by other rulers, so you can see a lot of very different buildings there.

Mosuha


Posted Jun 10, 2008, 5:31 pm
Oh, this should be the great day!
We woke up very early on tuesday, because we were all so excited to see the Taj Mahal.

Imagine, we could even see it from the hotel's room, far far away....

We made as much noise as we could to wake up our hosts, we just couldn't wait!

But than the big disapointment!
At the entry to the place of the Taj Mahal, the guys said, we tvs are all not allowed to go inside. In fact, humans are only permitted to take their camera with them.

These guys were very rude and sticked to their silly rules, Mona and Uli couldn't do anything.

That was soooo sad!

But our hosts went in and took some pictures for us.
And they told us a little bit about the history of the Taj.

Did you know these facts:

The Taj was built by Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial for his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child. in 1631. The death of Mumtaz left the emperor so heartbroken that his hair is said to have turned grey overnight. Construction of the Taj began in the same year and was not completed until 1653. In total 20.000 people worked on the building. The construction bill is believed to have run to 3 Million Rupee equivalent to about 70 million US dollar today.

As the Taj was ready, Shah Jahan let cut off the right hand of every worker, who built it, because he wanted to make sure, that they were not able to built another copy of Taj for any other man.

And soon after the finishing, Shah Jahan's son became the Emperor and put his father into jail.
He said, it is a big crime to built such an expansive building, while the folks have nothing to eat and die because of hunger. He put Shah Jahan into the Agra Fort from where he could see the Taj from his window every day, untill he died.

We went to this place, and Shah must had the same view, we had as we took this picture of me and the Taj in the far.

Still today it is a shame, that the goverment earns so much money every year from the visitors of the Taj Mahal, but Agra is still such a poor city.

It is very dirty and many people have got nothing to eat.

Around the place of the Taj a lot of beggars are, and you have totally to watch out, not to be cheated by shopowner and other people on the streets.

So this was a not so nice expierience allover....

Later we saw a nice hindu temple, which looks a little bit like the Taj on our way to Delhi.

Mosuha


Posted Jun 10, 2008, 8:24 pm
Wednesday my hosts spent the morning at the pool and I slept very long. That has to be from time to time, you know....

Later we visited together The National Gallery Of Modern Art in Delhi, which showed a exibition called "FLUX" with the artist Joseph Beuys, which was extremly weird, if you ask me!

After that, we saw some really nice buildings, some old tombs like the Humayun's Tomb, build in the mid 16th century by Haji Begum.
Mosuha


Posted Jun 11, 2008, 7:24 am
Today we saw the Red Fort in Delhi, but because of the security check at the entry, just Roderich and Carl, could slip in.

The Red Fort was built by the guy, who built the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan.
The sandstone walls of the Red Fort extend for 2 km and vary in height from 18m to 33m. Shah Jahan began construction of the massive fort in 1638 and it was completed in 1648. Shah Jahan never completly moved his capitel from Agra to his new city of Shahjahanabad in Delhi, because he was deposed and imprisoned in Agra Fort by his son, as I told you before.

Later we walked thrue the market streets of Old Delhi...and.... mmmmh.... were a little surprised by some disgusting smell, till we saw the reason for it.....

To be honest, I felt a little sick after that....
Mosuha


Posted Jun 11, 2008, 11:55 am
ooooooh yeaaaah... today we fly north of Delhi to Manali, which lies at an altidude of 2700m in the himalaya mountains and it was muuuuuuch less warm..... I loved that!!!

In Manali we took a little walk to the town and than enjoyed the beautiflu view from the hotel room's balcony.
Mosuha


Posted Jun 13, 2008, 8:07 am
Today was great.

We first went to a place, where Mona, Uli and Repa gone for a white-water-rafting.... That was nothing for me, but we watched them.

Later we visited some other places in Manali and, near by, the village of Vashisht.

In this area lives a lot of tibetan refugees, so you also find typicall tibetan houses and buddism temples. 
Mosuha


Posted Jun 13, 2008, 12:01 pm
Oh, I love the area of Manali.
Everything is green, the weather is chilly and the people are friendly.

Today we first visited some old temple and a cute, little castle.

Naggar castle was capital of the Kullu Valley for nearly 1500 years and the castle was built by Raja Sidh Singh about 500 years ago in the classic Himachal wood ans stone blockwork style. The castle's courtyard contains a tiny Jagtipath Temple, which houses a slab of stone said to have been carried here by wild bees.... and a small museum.

About 2 km uphill past the castle is the Roerich Gallery, a fine old house displaying the artwork of eccentric Russian painter Nikolai Roerich, who died in Naggar 1947, and his son Svetoslav Roerich.

The distinctive Roerich style falls somewhere between surrealism and russian icon painting.

It was very interesting!

A five minute wark uphill from the gallery (which was extreme steeply), is the Urusvati Himalayan Folk & Art Museum, which houses a collection of embroidery and folk art.

Later we saw also the Jana Waterfalls, hide in the mountains.
Mosuha


Posted Jun 13, 2008, 2:10 pm
Today we didn't do a lot.

The weather was bad, it rained, so we just relaxed and played "phase 10", a very good card game.

And later we saw some traditional indian dancers.
Mosuha


Posted Jun 13, 2008, 2:55 pm
We are on the road again and the first part of the route goes from Manali over the Rothang Pass, which is in an Altitude of about 4000 meters or 13050 ft, to Keylong.

Keylong is 115 km north of Manali and at an elevation of 3350m.

Imagine, it took us 7 1/2 HOURS to drive 115km, just because the Leh-Manali-Road is partly so bad, and sometimes there are some streetworking in progress or goats, sheeps or horses crossing and you have to wait, till the way is free again.

Anyway, the landscape is breathtaking and I really enjoyed travelling, although we all were totally shaked and had a little head pain, because of the altitude.
Mosuha


Posted Jun 14, 2008, 11:24 am
Again, one day in the car. Today we drove the 140km from Keylong to Sarchu in about 7 hours.

Look at this landscape, it was just so amazing!!!
We had a little break at an indian Dhaba, like the little road restaurants are called.

Near Sarchu we slept at a small tent camp ( 5 tents), which was build in the middle of nothing..... just an elevated plattform between some mountains.

You had to walk real slow, because you run out of breath so extremely fast.... I think, this place lied in an elevation of about 4000m, and your heart beats like hell.... I felt a little sick...

As long as the sun was shining, it was quiet warm and the sky had the brightest color I've ever seen!

But as the sun went down, it started to freeze.
This night was sooooooooooooooooooooooo cold, you can't even imagine! brrrrrrrrr....... But this incredible view was all worth it!
Mosuha


Posted Jun 16, 2008, 9:27 am
Today we took the last part of the roadtour, 245km from Sarchu to Leh in the region of Ladakh. That took us 10 hours this time.

We came along some of the highest motorable passes of the world.

Nakeela Pass at 15547 ft, which is 4738 meters,
Lachulunga at 16616 ft, which is 5065 meters,
and Taglamgla at 17592 ft, the second highest motorable pass in the world, which is 5362 meters.

In this high there is growing nothing anymore, no trees, no plants, no grass..... So the sourrounding look some kind of surealistic to me.... a lot of stones and rocks and of course snow....

We all felt sooooo sick, especially at Taglamgla Pass, because of the high elevation. Our hearts beated like crazy and you breathed very fast..... Although the landscape again was so beautiful, we didn't want to crawl out the car to take some pictures.... We just wanted to go down as fast as possible again and we were so happy as we arrived in Leh..... pfew....
Mosuha


Posted Jun 16, 2008, 11:40 am
Yesterday we were really lazy, We haven't done anything but lying in bed, reading a little bit and eating some soup....

We were just so exhausted from the journey and our bodies were stressed out by the high altitudes we passed, that we decided NOT to go to the world's highest motorable road, which lies in an elevation of 5700 meters near by Leh..... That would have been just to much for us, I guess....

And today we took a little walk around the villiage of Leh.

In the first pictures you see our Hotel, "The grand Dragon".

In the second ones it is a little mosque and in the backround at the hill you see the Leh Palace, that was built in the 17th century and it is sometimes called "the mini Potala", for the palace in Tibet that it resembles.

We also visited a tibetan monastary, which is near by the mosque.

Leh itself nestles in a side valley north of the Indus river. Until 1947 it had close trading realtions with Central Asia and yak trains would set off over Karakoram La to Yarkand and Kashgar.

Today Leh has massive millitary presence and is a reminder of India's sensitive borders with Pakistan and China, because it is in the state of Kashmire.

The old town, at the base of Namgyal Hill, is a labytinth of alleyways and houses stacked with dry wood and dung, collected to use as fuel to withstand the long winter months.

In fact, the tourist saison just lasts 3 month a year, from June to August, because it is just too cold in the other months and many roads are closed then.
Mosuha


Posted Jun 16, 2008, 2:29 pm
The last day of our vacations in the north of india passed by today.......

And it stood completly under the sign of Buddha!

We visited several gompas, monastarys, temples and stupas, as like the Klu-kkhyil Gompa ("klu-kkhyil" means "water spirits")in Likir, which was founded in the 11th century and was the first in Ladakh known to have been built by Tibetan monks.

Unusual for Ladakhi gompas, is the external 25m- high Maitreya statue, that dominates its setting.

This trip was very interessting, we saw a lot of the old tibetan culture... and we learnt about praying wheels and this prayer flags, you saw a lot in my pictures before.

On these colorfull flags there are prayers written and the colors symbolizes the elements. The wind shall carry the prayers around the world, that's why you often find these flags in high elevations, like the gompas and monastarys.

We had some very nice views about the valleys of the Ladakh area and the Indus River.

It was a loooong day, but we didn't want to miss the first game of Germany in the European Football Championship (okeeee, Uli and Mona didn't want to miss it!) so we went to bed very late.

Mosuha


Posted Jul 2, 2008, 9:39 pm
I guess, every journey has to end one day, so we had to go back to Chennai...

This vacations were really amazing and we had a lot of different expiriences....

I will miss the guys, who traveled along, but I am sure, I will meet them one fine day again, who knows...?!
Mosuha


Posted Jul 2, 2008, 9:46 pm
Hi Mommy....

I am right now on my way to South Africa and I hope to arrive there very soon!

Lucky me, I don't have to go alone on this trip, I am in nice company! I bunch of bears want to visit Threadbear, so they come along to MrsC with me. I am sure, we will have a lot of fun on the way and sing some road songs and play some games.....

I am so looking forward for south africa..... yuhuuuu :D

MrsC


Posted Jul 18, 2008, 4:13 pm
I have arrived safe and sound in the most squashed box Fi has EVER seen! She said her heart dropped when she saw all the official Post Office tape holding everything together; she assumed we (some bears for Threadbear and I) had been taken out  the box. But no, we were slightly flattened but all intact...

I arrived just in time to wish South Africa's most famous son a Happy 90th Birthday, and to have a little party with the other TVs.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3221/2680143122_1d0685ee4a.jpg?v=0

The whole country was celebrating, at schools, on the radio, on the TV and in the newspapers....

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Oohhh, my tummy is so full!

It's a little cold around here, think I'll hop into bed for a bit, chat to you tomorrow.... bye...

MrsC


Posted Jul 19, 2008, 10:24 pm
This morning we had to get up early because the children had a school function to attend. The school has an annual fund raiser called 'The Big Walk'. All the children and their parents meet up at the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens and do a sponsored walk from one end to the other.

(One of the great escapes of Johannesburg, the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden in Roodepoort, is almost 300 hectares of landscaped and natural veld that is a haven for birds and a popular picnic spot for Gautengers.

Despite development that is threatening encroachment on this beautiful garden, set against the backdrop of the magnificent Witpoortjie waterfall, this is still the home of a breeding pair of Verreaux’s Eagles that nest in the cliffs alongside the waterfall and no visit is complete until they have been sited. Enthusiasts arrive armed with telephoto lenses and tripod stands in an effort to capture these beautiful birds, and will sit for hours until they appear. Over 600 plant species and 220 bird species, as well as a number of reptile and small mammals such as antelope and jackal, occur naturally in the Nature Reserve and there are several wonderful walks through the garden and a trail up alongside the waterfall for the not so faint hearted.

One can arrange guided tours along the Roodekrans Ridge and through the Nature Reserve part of the garden, and the dam and wetland area with its bird hide alone is worth the visit, particularly at sundown just before the gates close. There is a lot of shaded lawn on which Jo’burgers while away balmy days with a bring-along picnic. The gardens have adopted a ‘carry-in carry-out’ litter policy that means you take home any rubbish with you, and an outcomes-based schools’ environmental education programme that caters for school groups in the garden.

There is a wonderful nursery, a gift and book shop and a restaurant; and over Christmas and on selected weekends, the grounds play host to sundowner concerts. But the star of the show is the garden itself with a succulent rockery, a cycad garden, the water garden with water-loving plants and a series of ponds that flow past the restaurant and its walks and trails.)

This year it was a little different. The children got a list of twenty questions and had to find the answers in the gardens... they get sponsored per correct answer.

So off we set... and Fi apologises for the lack of photos of us, but the children get sent off according to the grades they are in and we had five grades rushing up behind us! No time to stop and pose for photos...

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Shane reads a plaque to find an answer...

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Because it is winter at the moment, there are not too many flowering plants but the succulents were putting on a beautiful display of colour...

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There are many different types, most of them are from the aloe family...

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Were you paying attention?  Did you see us in that last photo?

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Just checking!

How odd are these plants? The roundish ones are one plant...

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Question 4. Which plants out lived the dinosaurs?

Answer.... these ones! Called cycads...

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I have no idea what these are but they are pretty cool...
like the French poodles of trees!

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A regular strelitzia....

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... and some unusual yellow ones...

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Question 5. Which plant is known as the water bottle of the desert?

Answer: this weird looking plant from the deserts of Namibia. It is related to the grape! It loses it's leaves and 'grapes’ (which are poisonous) in winter in order to survive, and it stores huge quantities of water so it can withstand drought...

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This is too hard to read (and I have told you all about it already) but you can see it looks better with leaves!

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Now, talking of weird.... don't these two trees look like they come straight out of a Dr Seuss story?

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These pretty little flowers are called "plough breakers". They have very large, tough stems, that grow underground. When land was cultivated for farming, the stems would break the blades of ploughs!

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Yay! We reached the waterfall... the halfway mark!

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Pretty little clivias, still showing a bit of damage from the locust swarm a while back when Fi came here with Pinky Bear.

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We started going uphill, thank goodness Fi had us in a bag, my little legs would never have made it! This is the view from up there...

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A little higher up... and it looks very dry here, this is winter in the Highveld... very dry and ready to burn at any moment...

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Oh look! A sign telling us why it needs to burn!

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What a relief... going downhill now... and we reached a dam...

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We sat in the hide for a bit to 'look for birds'. Of course, with 500 children around, the birds were also in hiding. And really, Fi was just sitting to have a rest!

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Question 18: name the plants on the side of the river with white spotted leaves...

Answer: Arum lilies! So pretty...

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Question 19: name the river...

Answer: Crocodile! Funny, there are no crocodiles in it...it is very low as there is no winter rainfall in Jo'burg.

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Hello! What on earth are these odd things?

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This was the last thing we looked at before we left.

Did you know: 8 out of 10 people in South Africa use traditional medicine or go to a traditional healer with their health problems?

Wow, that's a lot of people!

It also says:

Grassland plants can reach a great age, as old as trees!

I have never actually ever thought about that before, but now that I have read that it makes perfect sense!

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MrsC


Posted Jul 24, 2008, 11:43 am
Ughhh! Another early morning... Fi packed us all into a bag with a picnic lunch, and popped us in the car. We drove for what seemed like ages. Eventually she stopped here to get a security pass...

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I don't get it. What are we doing at the University? She is looking for the Planetarium... oh, there it is...

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This is the prettier, original bit of the university. The rest of it is mostly ugly concrete buildings... it would be nicer if we could sit on one of the rocks that was in the sun you know, it is chilly down here in the shade!

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Fi said we are not going to the planetarium at all. There is a big bus here and lots of...elderly people? What on earth....?

We are going on a tour of Johannesburg with the Geological Society. That should be interesting!

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We have a seat right at the back and we are off!
MrsC


Posted Jul 24, 2008, 10:06 pm
So, we are on the bus and the bus is travelling through the city centre. We are all excited because this is somewhere Fi has wanted to bring us all but it is not safe enough for her to do on her own. Much better to be sitting on a bus with a camera and taking photos out the window...

You need to bear in mind that Johannesburg only came into existence in the 1880s when gold was discovered. So it is a relatively new city.

Fi grew up in these parts and it was a real trip down memory lane. Some parts were just shocking for her to see how much they had degenerated in the years since she has been down here. Come, I'll show you.

We were heading for The Munroe drive, but we had to get out of Braamfontein first and travel through the notorious Hillbrow.

This is Park Station, is appears to have been tidied up a little since Fi last saw it. It is the main railway station.

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This building has a distinct 1930s feel to it, though I think the man is playing a more modern tune!

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Jo' burg central is pretty much a slum these days. What happened is that during the 1980s the world decided to impose sanctions on South Africa to force her to end Apartheid. Most foreign businesses withdrew from the country and left the buildings in the CBD vacant. By the time they had all come back, the CBD was pretty derelict and most large local businesses had moved to the more upmarket area of Sandton. The foreign companies decided (wisely) to move to Sandton too as the CBD was run down and unsafe. Although downtown Jo'burg is technically still known as the Central Business District, it is a misnomer. In truth, Sandton City is now the CBD. Some of the buildings in town have stood vacant for the last 20 years.

There has been an effort to revive the city centre in recent years. CCTV has been implemented to cut down the crime level and there has been an attempt to tidy it up in time for the FIFA 2010 Football World Cup.

But, like I said, it is still pretty much a slum...

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This old synagogue, that is no longer in use, was a copy of a Catholic church called the 'Sante Fe' in Istanbul... There is a massive Catholic church and it seemed to be well attended as we drove past but we were on the wrong side of the bus to get a photo.

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Then we went through Hillbrow and Fi was having too many flashbacks of her youth to take too many photos! The lady she was sitting next to had also lived in Hillbrow and they were both pointing out where all the places had been that they remembered!

The Professor mentioned that during the world wars, Brazil had remained neutral and had not had the same economic crises as the rest of the world, so it had developed architecturally. Hillbrow was designed loosely on the Bazillion style and was at one time known as 'Little Brazil'.

During it's heyday in the 1950s, Hillbrow was second only to Manhattan, as the finest built up city in the world. BUT, already in the 1950's an architect had predicted that the manner in which it had been built would result in it becoming a slum. The streets were too narrow and the buildings too tall and crowded, blocking the views that made high-rise living so attractive in the first place. Sadly, he was proved correct.

This is Highpoint, now more of a low point... Fi remembers shopping here, German delicatessens, Viennese tea rooms, and trendy boutiques. Hillbrow was very cosmopolitan at that stage, English, Scottish, Polish, German, French, Hungarian, Czech, you name them, they were here. It is still cosmopolitan but now its Nigerian, Angolan, Somalian, Congolese...

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This is the side Fi used to live. It looks quite clean here, but up close, it is a different story...

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This is the Fire Station, quite a cute little building.

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Not long till we head up the Munroe Drive…


MrsC


Posted Jul 24, 2008, 11:36 pm
The bus came to a stop after a steep climb up the Munroe Drive, which starts in Lower Houghton and ends up in Upper Houghton.

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From what I could understand, 374 million years ago, a bit before my time, two land masses called 'Cratans' crashed into each other in the area where present day Hawaii is. The one cratan ended up subducted under the other (it got caught underneath and then sloped up as a result - hope you can see this picture in your head!) Over time, with moving about and expanding and whatnot, they ended up right here! This area is called the Witwatersrand (white waters ridge) basin. There is some controversy as to how the name 'Witwatersrand' came to be, the most popular theory is that from far off the ridge shimmered and looked like water.

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It was formed 360 million years ago. And it is massive. Now, way back in those days there was no atmosphere and this basin was a sea. Electrical storms (something that hasn't changed!) caused massive erosion over time, and caused the sea to fill with sediment to a depth of 8kms (almost 5 miles) - that is higher than Mount Everest! And that was the end of the sea. Pity, because it now takes 6 hours of driving to get to the sea....

Anyway, back to the ridge we were standing on... an interesting fact: when it rains, any water that runs off over the edge here, into Lower Houghton...eventually ends up in the Indian Ocean. Any water that runs off down the other side (which I'll show you soon) ends up in the Atlantic Ocean! Fascinating, Fi can't believe she had never heard that before. She needs to go on more of these tours, I think!

Another thing: GOLD! Gold forms in rock strata. The strata that Johannesburg gold formed in, is at a terribly steep angle as it formed in the 'cratan' that ended up tilted up at the funny angle under the other one. There was such a nice piece of exposed rock on the way down the other side that showed you how steep this strata is but Fi wasn't quick enough to take a photo, sorry.

This steep angle makes mining for gold very difficult and that is also the reason the mines here are so very, very deep.

Right, back on the bus....

MrsC


Posted Jul 25, 2008, 10:07 am
We had to pass through Yeoville to reach our next destination. We were going to stop at two of the most famous schools in the area, but one of them, St John's College was hosting a huge church meeting where the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu was speaking and the other, King Edward VII School, was blocked off by all the traffic to the first. So much for that idea then! If you get a chance, read the history of KES, it is very interesting.

So, back to Yeoville. Yeoville used to be THE trendiest area, alive with arts and culture. It was at one stage also a predominantly Jewish area. And now sadly, it is just another slum. A lot of the buildings are bricked up, burned down or even condemned as unfit for human habitation.

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This is Rocky Street. It used to be the place to shop during the day, and the place to go clubbing at night.

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The rest of the photos are just too depressing so we'll skip them and head on over to the other side of Yeoville.

This is the road between Yeoville and Hillbrow. That really tall round building is called Ponte. It has gone through many phases. First as luxury apartments, then it became a bit more squalid, Fi remembers visiting once and the centre of the building (which is hollow) was filled with rubbish. There have been many grand plans with this building. At on stage they were thinking of turning it into a prison, complete with a police station and courts! Yes, Jo'burg has more crime than the current legal system can cope with and the jails are severely over crowded. Now it is going through another attempt at revival....someone has high hopes.

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Now these apartments are still nicely maintained. They used to be THE place to live, only doctors and such used to live here because the view is quite simply spectacular....

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This unfinished and abandoned building right next to it is where we stood to see the view on the other side of the Houghton ridge.

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You can see all of Hillbrow to your right...

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Sweeping across you can see Ponte again and all of downtown Jo'burg...

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Ellis Park Stadium (probably has another name by now) where the 2010 world cup will be played...

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A bit more of the vista...

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Next we are heading over to this hill on the other side, where you can just make out a tower type structure on the top.

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The view at night must be quite fantastic with all the lights, but sorry, it is not an option.

In stark contrast to that beautiful building, is this one right next door...

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But then, a few blocks away from that...

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Yep, "South Africa, Land of Contrast" indeed.

This underpass on the Joe Slovo Drive (formerly Harrow Road) has always been known for its dark and dreary appearance. But thanks to being the main road to Ellis Park, it has had quite a nice face lift! All the horrid concrete pillars, formerly covered in advertising posters and graffiti are now covered in sparkly mosaics! What a welcome change.

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Now, you may have read before about the taxis in Jo'burg. They are mini buses that the masses use for transport. They have no true designated routes or ways of identifying where they are headed. So, with typical African ingenuity, they made a plan. The commuter makes a hand signal to indicate where he or she wants to travel to. If the taxi is heading that way he stops (usually abruptly after swerving in front of your car...ho hum...)

Now, very cleverly, the taxi rank in front of Ellis Park has the hand signals displayed so you know which queue to join! (A word of warning to anyone who decides to visit South Africa...do NOT under any circumstance, take a ride in one of these taxis…call Fi, she'll give you a lift!)

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Just next to Ellis Park is China City. As with every major city, there was China Town in downtown Jo'burg. But as the area became more and more dangerous, business suffered. So the Chinese traders all moved here, under one roof, with safe parking for shoppers. This is just the one gate...the whole place is quite huge.

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A little further on and we are in a suburb called Kensington. No where near as glamorous as its London namesake...


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In the 1970s Mozambique had a civil uprising and a vast amount of Portuguese people fled to South Africa or Zimbabwe. They bought houses here and re decorated them to better suit their style. The sloping poles on the veranda are a give away... it is a decidedly old fashioned Mozambican feature.

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There is still a massive Portuguese community in South Africa, but as with large amounts of the rest of the former immigrant population, a lot of them have returned home following the 'decline' of South Africa.

Okay, the bus is stopping, time to stretch our legs...










MrsC


Posted Jul 25, 2008, 10:48 am
The bus stopped in front of this pretty little garden that was on the side of the road.

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We walked up a steep path of what was clearly once some ones house and garden. At the top we sat patiently and listened to The Professor telling us all about the history of the different suburbs and what terrible things were done to people all in the name of greed. Forced evictions, terrible living conditions, it went on but is actually too horrible to re- tell...

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This is the spectacular view of the whole of Johannesburg City. Pity about all the people in the way...

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Well, we sat here and waited quietly for the lecture to end so we could get a nice picture without the Archaeological Society members in. Then somebody said, "let’s rather walk THAT way back down through the garden". So they all came back our way and when we were spotted we caused quite a stir! Fi had to explain just what we (and she!) were up to...well that caused a ripple of excitement but they eventually moved on and we got our photo...then a mad dash for the bus! And remember we were right at the back of the bus, so we had to walk past everyone and be admired...luckily none of us are shy...

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This is a very typical house from the early days of Johannesburg...I am talking about the style here, NOT the colour! Tin roof, square shape, pillars and 'broekie lace' trim ('Broekies' are girls’ panties or under pants, it is one of Fi's favourite Afrikaans words) I must also assure you that the house was quite level, it was the camera that was at a funny angle...

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This is another prestigious school: Jeppe Boys the oldest school in Jo'burg and if you have the time, it is well worth it to read the history of the school through the ages.

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MrsC


Posted Jul 25, 2008, 11:32 am
You can't accuse South Africans of not having a sense of humour...

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Our next stop was up another koppjie (little hill) to visit the Scottish Horse Memorial. We all huffed and puffed our way up the steep steps to reach the top....

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Sadly the memorial has been vandalised. Because poverty is so rife in this country, many people turn to illegal means to make some money just to survive. The latest trend is stealing any metal (in this case the brass plaques, but door numbers, man hole covers etc) that are then sold to unscrupulous metal merchants for smelting.

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There are two interesting things to see from up here.

Firstly, if you look straight ahead in this photo, you can see a large mine dump (our man made mountains that are by products of gold mining). Just in front of it and to the right of it you can see all the colourful containers... well, that is City Deep, our dry inland port and the second largest port in South Africa. The largest port being Durban Harbour.

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The second interesting thing if you look at this photo, is that you will notice that the high-rise buildings of down town Jo'burg stop quite abruptly, and the rest of the buildings are quite flat...

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The reason for that is under mining. The mines are all in this area and they go extremely deep underground (for several kilometres). Any buildings over a certain height would just collapse because the ground underneath them is basically tunnels. One of the men on the tour with us, said he worked for a building firm and they were trying to build something over there and they got three support pillars down but the fourth could never be built because when they drilled through the rock there was no bottom! As you can imagine there are a lot of earth tremors in Johannesburg from all this underground activity... every now and then there are minor quakes to, but more to the west.

Right, I am starting to get hungry now, surely it is time to stop for lunch? It is? Yay! We hop back on the bus and it is a short trip to Rhodes Park for a picnic lunch...


Rhode's Park is quite nice. Fi hadn't been there for years. There is a lake in the middle, swings and things for the children, a bowling green, a soccer field, a restaurant...

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Fi set us all up nicely for  a photo in front of the lake and then had to explain to two people all about ToyVoyagers. And then she was listening to the Prof talking again. It was only when she got home and downloaded all the photos that she noticed she had packed us back in her bag without taking the picture! Silly woman...



MrsC


Posted Jul 25, 2008, 2:03 pm
Hmmm my tummy is nice and full, and I feel like going to sleep now, not travelling around on the bus. Surely I can have a quick nap, there can't be anything more interesting to see...

We are going back in the direction we came from. The Prof is telling us we are going to see some place called Jeppestown...yawn... Fi told me that , when he was still alive, her father worked in Jeppestown. She says it is really not such a nice area...

The Prof tells us that Johannesburg was expanding so rapidly, that they knew they would have to create more residential areas. They could not go to the South because that is where the mines were, no one ever considered going to the North as they never thought it would ever get that big, so the toss up was: should they build to the East or the West? The company that was to do the expansion was called Jeppe & Ford Estate Company. They could not decide which would be better so they chose to do both Jeppe decided to build up the east side and named it Jeppestown after himself, and Ford built up the western side and named it...Fordsburg... vain bunch, weren't they?

Well Jeppestown took off with a bang and became quite a residential area. Ford built his side slightly different, he made it both a residential and a business area, and it boomed too.

Today though, Jeppestown is a run down industrial area. We passed the original men’s hostel. Oh. My. Goodness...

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I can't believe people can live in such squalor.

Here is one of the original buildings that still stands today.

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Fordsburg has a bit of a sad history, which you can read about now, because the sun was at the wrong angle to take photos of by the time we got there...

Basically the government decided (under the Group Areas Act IE. apartheid) that all the Indians needed to move out of the area where they had built up their businesses and move to an area set aside for them called Lenasia, 32 Kms (20 miles) away. There was of course great resistance. The government closed down the schools in Fordsburg, forcing the Indian community to move or to travel to Lenasia every day for the children to be schooled.

Eventually the government built a huge shopping centre called the Oriental Plaza for the Indian businessmen to rent out and continue with their trading, in an effort to undermine them.  However, the Indians turned the Oriental Plaza into a huge success and the area is now quite a busy trading site again. In recent years Fordsburg has been affected by the same decline as the rest of Johannesburg.

Next to Fordsburg is a town called Vrededorp, which was an area set aside for the Malay people. It was built to the same plans as a black township called Orlando in Soweto. It comes as quite a shock to see it. It also has a very sad history , which you can read here. Sorry, Fi just could not take photos because it is one of those towns where each and every single family sit on the outside 'stoep' (veranda) on a Sunday afternoon, for want of anything better to do. Taking photos felt like an invasion of privacy. Especially in such a desperately poor community; and even more so as they were watching our great big bus with open mouthed astonishment. Clearly not to many tours go through there then! Interestingly it was a very mixed community but mostly white and coloured (Malay).

Well after that little trip I was wide awake again! Then the Prof said we were off to a market. Oh, I do like to shop!

MrsC


Posted Jul 25, 2008, 2:59 pm
So, I guess there will be no shopping then. We were told to leave our bags on the bus and we were in Fi's bag...man...oh well we will wait till she gets back to tell us about it then.

I can smell something delicious....what is it? Pork chop?

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Fi says to tell you that that woman's face is not that colour naturally, she has red ochre on it.

Okay, I am quite excited to see these photos of the market...

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The Mai Mai market is the oldest market in Johannesburg. It is traditionally a Zulu market. In the 'old days' white people needed a special permit to gain access. Though truth be told, chances are these days none of them even know of its existence. Fi had never even heard of it after thirty odd years of living in Jo'burg.

Here is a little replica Zulu hut.

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It is in a rather unsavoury part of town, but it has been taken over by some local council agency that is determined to rejuvenate and revive it to a pristine state. People actually live in the market, but plans are underway to relocate these families as it is quite unsuitable for children to be living in these conditions.

These two don't seem bothered at all! They are having loads of fun in an old crate.

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Oh! It's not quite your usual market then... it is a 'muti' market. Muti is traditional medicine. When we read the other day at the Botanical gardens that 8 out of 10 people use traditional medicine, I bet you had pretty little visions of berries and flowers. Welcome to the reality.

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I'll show you a closer look. WARNING: this is not for the faint hearted.

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Those were ostrich legs, a crocodile and who knows what else...

These are various skins and carcasses...

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These are roots and plants. Muti is not only used for headaches and tummy aches...but for all sorts of things you might consider  'witchcraft'.

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Although this looks all nice and tidy and rather like an old fashioned sweetie shop, be warned, those jars contain things that will make you want to vomit! Read this for a bit more info on some of the contents. The shop they talk about in this article is this very one.

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The whole place had been dug up to repair the sewerage pipes so it was a bit treacherous to walk through.

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Two Zulu children.

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Traditional bead work. As well as being a muti market, this is also a traditional crafts market.

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Most of these hides are illegal, they are from endangered animals. That thing with its head still attached is a baboon. EEEUUUWWWW!

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Oh well, it is Sunday after all...

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These may be goat tails, they are used in traditional dress.

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These sandals are a traditional design usually made from buck skin. The heart shaped cut out bit has buck hide in it but that little tick is a slightly modern twist... not so sure these are genuine Nikes!

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The Prof told us that they have been making these wedding kists (or trunks) since the market first started...

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But they are making more of these, and doing a booming trade because of the high AIDS death toll...

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Right, time to leave, chicken for supper anyone?

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MrsC


Posted Jul 25, 2008, 5:16 pm
You know, I am REALLY glad we went to that market AFTER lunch...

It is time to head back to the university through the CBD.

Look, great big buildings and a tiny little corner cafe!

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Apparently, Jo'burg was designed on a tight grid system with lots of 'corner' spots for a...ahem... good reason. This was not the first gold rush that South Africa had experienced (although it was certainly the biggest and most enduring).

The authorities had seen what had happened in Standerton when the 'gold diggers' had arrived and had the foresight to plan ahead with Jo'burg before they disclosed the news of the gold. They knew for instance that the type of man who was going to rush over and forsake everything for dreams of riches was not your ordinary upstanding model citizen. He wanted three things: somewhere to sleep, somewhere to drink, and the company of (how shall we put this?), ladies of the night. Those corner properties were for the ladies and their large revenues collected in rent and the same with the beer halls.

This old building has a sign on it that says it is for re-development. Next door is Dr Zunga & Mama...bet he gets his prescriptions filled at the Mai Mai market...

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The trouble with tightly built tall buildings, the sun never gets in...

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Here is a rather modern building in amongst the old ones.

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Sadly, there are lots of for sale signs. It will however be nice if the buildings are bought and refurbished to their previous glory.

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Like these ones...

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This is the rather nicely kept (on the outside at least) Magistrates Courts.

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We got off the bus in Main Street, where the Mining Houses have their headquarters. They have done such a nice job of cleaning up the street. They have had the buildings sandblasted to remove a hundred years of grime, re paved the road, planted gardens, displayed interesting objects and put up information boards. Well done! Now if only they can tackle the rest of town like this...

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This is a mine head on display...

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Here we are in front of one of the buildings.

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This is the detail above the door of the same building.

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This relief goes round the entire wall of the building, showcasing all of South Africa's animals.

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Aren't we brave? Staring danger right in the...actually, could we move?

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Fi says she remembers this statue so well from her childhood, but it was in a different place then...

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Oh, this explains it! The Oppenheimers are the South African equivalent of the Rockefellers. They are a very wealthy mining family.
The poor bucks were vandalised by those naughty people who steal metal that I mentioned earlier...

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Here is a front view.

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This building is slightly less ornate than the other.

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You know, during the week it looks exactly like this, but with taxis!

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This is Main Street almost a hundred years ago...

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And this was used for crushing the rock to extract gold. It was also vandalised for the metal and the original beams were used for firewood! Honestly, some people have no sense of history.

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Here is the description.

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...and a close up.

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This is a rather attractive building.

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This is an unattractive building that they have disguised with artwork...

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Here is an interesting board about the stage coach.

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Can you read it now?

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Here is something else Fi only vaguely knew about, the Mapungubwe Rhino. This is obviously a reproduction. The original one is only 15cm (6Inches) long!

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Here is the write up on it.

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We are being called back to the bus...

We pass the ANC building which celebrates Nelson Mandela's 90th Birthday.

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..and the 'Trust Me Tavern', which we don't!

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Our next port of call is Fordsburg and Vrededorp which I have already mentioned.

On the way, we pass through Newtown, which is also a 'cleaned up' area. This is Museum Africa, which Fi says she has to visit one day.

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Here we are back where we started! Educated and exhausted, and it is a long drive back home!

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MrsC


Posted Jul 27, 2008, 5:15 pm
We were all invited to a party today and the theme was 'The Olympic Games'. We were all quite excited to represent our countries!

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First up were the equestrian events. Whoa Nellie!

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We sat out the sprinting as we stood no chance against these fine athletes...

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I gave the javelin a go though, don't worry, the car was just fine!

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All four of us, together, could not make the weights even budge. Natalie showed us how, declaring "they are not so heavy!" Show off...

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We were so quick at throwing discus that the photos were blurred! No point in showing you!

Next up was boxing... I had a little problem with my gloves at first...

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After all of that physical exercise it was time for a drink and sugar boosting snack...

This was the only swimming going on today, this is the Winter Olympics!

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I stand corrected, here are the synchronised swimmers...

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We sang a rousing chorus of 'Happy Birthday' to the birthday boy and tucked into some scrummy cake.... cutting that cake was also an Olympic event!

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Finally it was prize giving...

The bronze goes to Canada! Represented by Synapse.

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Joint silver to Australia and England! Represented by myself & Fiona

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And the winner is.....ta da! The superior athlete, Pinky Bear from Germany!

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What a fabulous day!

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But now I need to go home for a hot bath and a muscle relaxing massage...





MrsC


Posted Aug 10, 2008, 11:08 pm
There are quite a few new ToyVoyagers visiting Fi, the children are on holiday, spring is definitely in the air... what better excuse for a picnic?

We all gathered outside in the garden, even Threadbear and Eloise joined us as it is so nice and warm today. Fi provided quite a nice spread...

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NormaNikkers was very excited so find a strawberry that was almost the same size as her (guaranteed not genetically modified...hmmm....)

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Bullet made friends with one of the dogs...

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Oh...groan...I ate too much! We all settled back to listen to a story...but it was so nice and warm, and our tummies were full, the birds were singing (you could hear them so nicely when the neighbour switched off his angle grinder!) and the blanket was soft...

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...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...Hmm? Ah ...what? Me? Sleeping? No, I'm just looking up at how blue the sky is....really!

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MrsC


Posted Aug 10, 2008, 11:24 pm
One of the new TVs to arrive, is a little bunny called Gracy, she has come to help Fi and Threadbear sort out all the bears and soft toys that they have collected... and believe me when I tell you they need all the help they can get... what a mess in Teddy Bear Central... look...

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Of course, we got roped in to help too. We had an 'Indaba' (Zulu word for a gathering or meeting) to try and decide the best way to go about sorting every thing out.

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Synapse, being a brain cell, came up with a great solution. We open up the very large boxes and tape the bottoms. Then we stack the large bears at the bottom and fill up with medium size bears then the smaller bears, so they don't end up crushed after all the hard work Threadbear and Eloise have done sorting them out. We count them as they go in.

THEN, we write down the box number and the amount of bears in each box. Each box gets a little yellow sticker with the same information on it.

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Once all the boxes are full, we stack them neatly to one side. Once they are out the way we can tackle the rest of the mess...

We all agreed this was a fine plan and got to work...we made very sure WE didn't end up in the boxes!!!! I had a little difficulty at first with the yellow stickers sticking to my paws, but I managed very cleverly to pull the backing off only half way, stick it down then pull off the remaining backing…not just a pretty face you know!

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Some of the bears still need ribbons and some of them need a bit of fixing up... like this poor bear who has bad cataracts...

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Ah! Much better....

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Fiona is sewing up some holes in a bear skin rug....

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Oops! Not a rug! Bullet helps her add stuffing while she holds it open...don't get lost in there!

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Almost done...last few stitches...

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Doesn't look very happy about her renewal does she?

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Oh, silly me. Pass the black wool please....

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Well, we sorted out bears for HOURS, and we packed four of those huge boxes...BUT... we still weren't finished and we were tired so we called it a day.


MrsC


Posted Aug 12, 2008, 12:37 am
Well. What do you know! No sorting out bears today, we are all in the car and heading...um, just where are we going?

To someone's house...oh, it's Vicki and her children. But we are not getting out the car, she is getting in her car! We are going on a joint expedition: two Moms, four kids and TWELVE ToyVoyagers! That should be fun...

Boring, we have been stuck in traffic for AGES due to road works, but here we are at the University of the Witwatersrand, wait, we are driving through, right up to the gate on the other side. Were we just taking a short cut? Nope, now I see where we are going...The Origins Centre

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Now we can all truly say we have been on the African continent!

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We stopped to read the plaque, on the way in.

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It says: On Dec 23, 1924, Raymond Dart discovered the Taung skull, which proved humankind began in Africa. Using one of his wife’s knitting needles, he scraped through rock for 73 days to reveal the million year old face of an early human baby with a full set of milk teeth.
As you walk in to the museum, you go through a giant representation of the world made of hand woven wire. Wow, that must have taken the artist ages to complete...

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Here is a welcome home for humans, guess they never expected us to visit!

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And...

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Actually, our journey did not begin there. We kept bumping into a camera crew who were filming, they glared at us and we swiftly moved on! The room we missed was full of Stone Age flints and tools. It was cleverly called the 'journey to the microchip'. When humans first started using 'tools' they were rather crude and clumsily shaped big stones. As they progressed, the tools became smaller and more refined.

We also missed the skull collection, but we came back to it afterwards...

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This is a replica of the famous Taung 'baby'.

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And this is the even more famous 'Mrs Ples', who lived just up the road from Fi!

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Here is her tag. It says:

STW% (Mrs Ples)
Approximately 2.5 Million Years old.
Found in 1947 by Robert Broom at Sterkfontein Caves, this fossil hominid was originally classified as PLESIATHROPUS TRANSVAALENSIS.  The individual was later incorporated into the species AUSTRALOPITHECUS AFRICANUS. Broom argued that the remains represented a middle aged female at the time of death. From this, the name 'Mrs Ples' from the original genus has stuck. Recently a number of researchers have argued that the specimen actually represents a male.

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The next few sections were all about time lines of human development on the different continents and DNA...

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The next section, the main focus of the museum, was about the San. You are probably more familiar with the term 'Bushman'. The story of the San is an incredibly sad one, and I am warning you now, you may need tissues...

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There are a lot of untruths that people believed about the San...

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This is the replica of a burial of a five year old girl. She was clearly loved, her parents have placed shells, necklaces and other items in the grave with her.

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The San were noted for their rock art, a rich history of their lives, but not easily understood.

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Some of the rock art is easy enough to understand, it was either engraved or painted on rocks, depending on the area it is found in. These are Elands, either engraved or painted..

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This looks like a Wildebees.

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Here is an original and a repaired reproduction.

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This is another myth...

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The San were one with nature, nomads that had no fixed property. they hunted when they were hungry, they travelled, following water. They had a rich spiritual heritage as well. They did what was known as a 'trance dance' (the oldest human ritual) where they danced themselves into a trance in order to speak with the gods, or make rain.

All of this was about to come to a brutal end, with the arrival of the European colonists...

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The colonists, took the land as their own, the San were forced out. Starving, they hunted the animals that were now the 'property' of the European settlers. They were killed or arrested as a result. They were slaughtered in their thousands.

We are going to skip ahead a bit, to the exit of the museum, where the beautiful poems of the San are written on animal bones...

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This one says: 'I am the wind that blows away the footprints of the dead...'

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I can't remember their names, but there were two people, a lady and a gentleman, who realised that the San were being exterminated without leaving a written history behind. They got permission to have some prisoners brought to them to record their stories, to teach them the San language and to tell the stories of San history.

Read them, weep...

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A British soldier had been sent to the mountain kingdom of Lesotho to find a Zulu King who had escaped from the British. When he reached Lesotho and saw how vast and mountainous it was, he realised that his task was impossible. He forgot about catching the errant Zulu as he discovered the San rock art in the area. He did a study on it, and got the remaining San to interpret the images that they portrayed. He published his findings in a document that was promptly forgotten by everyone.

Decades later, it was found and was the 'Rosetta stone' of San art, helping to unravel the secrets of the San paintings and engravings, as the few San that were left no longer drew on the rocks.

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Okay, back to the main exhibit. We watched another short film (we had seen a few on the way through - bushmen hunting, the Trance Dance, rain making)

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This is the story of a San hero. He was a chief who fought off the Boers. He handed himself over when he realised that his people were in danger. He was taken away to a prison in Pretoria on a train.

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His people painted the story on the walls of the Makgabeng Shelter, and it is a rare depiction of trains in San art.

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Another form of rock art also exists in South Africa, known as Khoe art. No one knows for sure who the artists were, but it is distinctly different from the San art. Whereas theirs was animals, people and mythical beasts, this is all geometrical shapes.

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The museum exhibits now move on to Bantu rock art, but here is an interesting article on the Khoe and San if you care to read it.

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Bantu art focuses more on initiation rites than story telling. (Initiation is the passage from childhood to adulthood)

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This is a beaded figurine that is part of an initiation ceremony.

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This one is part of a Northern Sotho male initiation ceremony.

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It dates to the late 1800's. The crocodile was turned upside down and covered by a small thatch structure known as 'The Elephant". Food was placed in the crocodile and the initiates had to eat it without using their hands. The crocodile and the elephant are chiefly symbols. In this context they are to remind the boys of the role of the chief as provider and protector of his people.

The children were starting to get a little restless by now, luckily, in every few rooms there are computers that the children can play an interactive game on. They have to answer questions on each display and solve puzzles. The hardest one was moving blocks around to form the Khoe geometric pattern! We helped Natalie, as she was at a disadvantage, not being able to read! She managed to get the highest score....

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One of the displays, was Perspex blocks with the names of all the tribes in South Africa (LOTS!)

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When a light shone through them, the names were displayed on the floor...

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Well that was the end of the museum...

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But we stopped in the shop to have a look around...

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Lots of 'recycled' craft, look:

Cleaning liquid buck...

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Chip (crisp) packet bowl...

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Soft drink can jewellery...

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And this was pretty funny!

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Well that was pretty interesting (and a bit sad). Maybe one day I will get to see more rock art in some of these other places...

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MrsC


Posted Aug 14, 2008, 5:04 pm
Well, it seems there will be no more sorting out of bears for me...I am off on holiday with Vicki! We are off to the Eastern Cape...I hear it is spectacularly beautiful down there. We are going to George first, but I have no idea who he is... Oh! George is a place, not a person...silly me.

Well goodbye to all the other TVs staying behind with Fi, and goodbye to everyone reading, I'll be back in three weeks time.

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Vicki


Posted Sep 8, 2008, 7:08 am
Vicki came to fetch me and brought along the TV's visiting her to welcome me. I am going away on holiday with them all, yay!!

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Vicki


Posted Sep 8, 2008, 7:17 am
We packed our bags, there was great excitement, everyone talking together.... we got on the plane and almost two hours later we were in a town called George, situated on the beautiful Garden Route in the Western Cape.

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Our first stop was the Wilderness Beach. It was beautiful but unfortunately the water was very cold!

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Nicholas and Juanita took us to feel the water which was freezing! We decided to sit on the car bonnet and admire the scenery rather.

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Sputnik and Holiday Harry were getting up to there pranks again!! Hope Vicki doesn't drive off now...

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This is the view from the top of the hill. Just hold on tight Juanita please! It is a looong way down! A really pretty place though.

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Around the corner, the river joins the sea and the railway bridge crosses over the Keurbooms River.

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Sitting by the toasty fire at Vicki's step sister, Melinda's, house. It's quite chilly outside.

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I could just doze off right here....
Vicki


Posted Sep 8, 2008, 7:30 am
Woke up to this beautiful view of the mountains.

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We watched some of the Olympic games on this huge television set!!

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We were off to Oudtshoorn for some sightseeing. First stop the swing bridge. Nicholas was shaking the bridge as we walked across and making it swing and Juanita was shouting at him, we were all laughing.

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Went to buy ostrich biltong for Vicki's stepfather. Biltong is a dried meat that is eaten all over South Africa as a snack and here it is made from ostrich meat. This meat has become very popular as it is cholesterol free. It tastes very nice too apparently, give me veggies rather, thanks!

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Oudtshoorn is full of beautiful old buildings built during the ostrich feather boom.

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The weather in Oudtshoorn was glorious and we drove through the Outeniqua mountains to get back to George, through the clouds.

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We stopped at a viewing point but it was so cold nobody wanted to venture out of the bag. We were all cuddled up and warm!

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Abeeku, the teeniest of us all, couldn't see a thing out the top of the bag, so he volunteered to come out and see the view.

And what a stunning view! Whew! Pity is was so misty and cloudy, you couldn't really see George in the distance. The dirt road is the old Montague Pass road which was the first road made to cross over the mountains. Eventually Purple Bun and I decided we would have a quick look...


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Vicki


Posted Sep 8, 2008, 7:36 am
We loaded up the car and together with Vicki's Mom and Juanita (Vicki's daughter) and Nicholas (Vicki's son)(the men had to stay behind and work!), Vicki drove us along the Garden Route to the Sunshine Coast and Port Alfred.

We drove over many rivers with beautifully designed bridges. The Storms River Bridge is one of the famous ones with it's deep gorge below. The story goes that the Italian architect who designed the bridge commited suicide by jumping off it because when the two sides were lowered they didn't meet exactly in the middle, there was a gap of a few centimetres!!

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We finally arrived (500km later...) at this most beautiful hotel. It was called the Fish River Sun

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Here we are getting some fresh air and admiring the fish pond at the entrance of the hotel.

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This is where we were staying for the next week, yay!! Ooooh, what bliss! Vicki said there was a nature reserve on the hotel estate, I wonder if there are any bunnies there??

Vicki


Posted Sep 8, 2008, 7:46 am
The Fish River Sun is actually 27km away from Port Alfred, so we took the little drive (after yesterday's 500km, it was little!!), and went to Port Alfred to do some sight seeing.

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The whole area is very picturesque! And Vicki took lots of photos...

We drove down the East Bank and the West Bank of the Kowie River, which the town is built around. Hey! The beach!! Stop! We want to get out! I bet this water is freezing too... Juanita went to feel the water and said it was icy!

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Vicki did some fancy photo stitching. This is the beautiful marina. There are five islands with stunning homes on them and people get around by boat.

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Vicki said she could get used to this life, she wishes she could win the Lotto. Pity she can't become a toyvoyager, now that's the life!!
Vicki


Posted Sep 8, 2008, 7:55 am
What many people don't know about Vicki, is that she is CRAZY about lighthouses! (And windmills but that's another story...). So here we are visiting the Great Fish Point lighthouse. South African Lighthouses. Lighthouse Adventures.

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Once again, we held on tight (what is it with these people and heights!?) and went up the 58 stairs to the top. This is the shortest lighthouse in South Africa. The guided tour was very interesting, the lighthouse keeper even showed us the original clockwork mechanism that was wound up every four hours. Now everything is automatic and generator driven.

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The view from the top. Wow!

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On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a little town called Bathhurst, which was established by the 1820 settlers who came from Britain to settle in the Cape. Here is the church that was built by them. The whole area has been declared a national monument.

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Enough for one day.... 'Home James'!

Vicki


Posted Sep 8, 2008, 8:05 am
Aaaah! A beautiful sunshine day and we get to sit on the beach and feel the sand between our toes / hooves / paws, etc.

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Holiday Harry pulled out the towel and sunglasses and caught quite a tan!

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We walked down to the water and looked in the rock pools. The beaches are pristine, white, clean and untouched. Lots of shells around too. We gathered so many, we had to off load them into the bag.

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Vicki organised for a hotel guide to take us for a drive, on a tuc-tuc, through the nature reserve. We saw a few animals but no bunnies! They're probably fightened and hide away.

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Vicki's Mom couldn't help but feed this poor Vervet monkey. It didn't have any hands, poor thing.

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After the beach, we came to relax at the pool. The pool was heated, everyone was happy!! They had a lovely swim (and rinsed off the salt and sand!), even Vicki!! I just rinsed my paws off in the water, as you know I don't really like getting wet!

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Vicki


Posted Sep 8, 2008, 8:13 am
Time to say farewell to Fish River Sun and Port Alfred and move on.... we will miss you, what a lovely stay.

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Some of the TV's were mumbling and grumbling about all the travelling in the car. Vicki told them to stop copmplaining, 'South Africa is a big country guys, if you want to see the places, you have to travel the distances!' That's what she said, and it seems her children know the drill, they said nothing! Anyway today's travelling wasn't too bad, only about 250kms! We stopped along the way and bought pineapples, they were huge!
Twelve pineapples for R15! Now that's a bargain! Vicki's Mom was excited, she loves pineapples.

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Another stop in Port Elizabeth to visit the small oceanarium they have there. A bit disappointing but the dolphins were very friendly, they wanted to play with the ball all the time. Vicki says the Ushaka Marine World in Durban is much better to visit. Maybe I'll get to see it some day?? Vicki's Mom lives in Durban.

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And pengiuns...

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Back on the road again, not far to Cape St Francis.

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Hooray! The end of the road for today....

Vicki


Posted Sep 8, 2008, 8:22 am
Off to Jeffreys Bay, one of the famous surfing sights of the world!! Only the weather is a bit miserable and there don't seem to be too many waves to talk of. Not a surfer in sight! This beach must be sooo busy at Christmas time, when all the schools are on holiday and the weather is warm!

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We had coffee and walked around the shops. There are ladies who make figurines from the shells to make money.

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Jeffreys Bay is about 15 km from the St Francis area. St Francis Bay, Port St Francis and Cape St Francis all make up the greater St Francis area. We are staying at Port St Francis, in a place called Anchorage, it's real pretty!
Vicki


Posted Sep 8, 2008, 8:30 am
Another day, another lighthouse!

This one is the Cape St Francis Seal Point lighthouse!

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This time there were 157 stairs and Vicki made it almost half way and turned back. The stairs were too narrow and too steep. She gave the camera to Juanita who carried on up to the top but we came back with Vicki. Here's the view from the top though. The lighthouse is the highest concrete structure in the area.

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And the narrow stairs...

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We walked on the rocks beneath the lighthouse and collected some shells.

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There is a penguin rehabilitation centre next to the lighthouse but it was locked up and we couldn't go in, we saw the penguins through glass windows and a fence.

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This was the view from our room at our apartment in Port St Francis. Anchorage is made up of various apartments and has a mediterranean look.

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This was the view from the balcony with the sea and the beach behind us, we could watch the boats come into the harbour. Vicki's stepfather (he met us in Port St Francis) went and bought calamari (chokka) from the fishermen and cooked it for them! They all said it was deelicious and I got special creamed spinach, yum!

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Here's the harbour which was a short walk away from our apartment.

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Vicki's stepfather collected mussels off the beach too (yes, you have to have a licence and for collecting shells too!) and they cooked and ate them too. Not for me thanks.... I'll stick to my veggies.

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Vicki


Posted Sep 8, 2008, 8:34 am
Our last day at St Francis, aaaaahhh! We were having a fantastic time. Relaxing on the beach (they had a pool here too but it was not heated, so nobody volunteered to brave the water, brrr!), taking walks, taking afternoon naps (hmmm!), playing cards and games, etc.
With Vicki around, we had to get some sight seeing done too! She found out that we missed visiting a lighthouse in Port Elizabeth (when we went to the oceanarium), and was most upset!
SO we decided to visit the Seal Point lighthouse one more time, at night time to see what it looked like in the dark!!

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Really beautiful!
Vicki


Posted Sep 8, 2008, 8:48 am
We packed our bags and back into the car ( some quiet mumbling that Vicki didn't hear...), we drove back along the Garden Route to George. Luckily we stopped along the way to stretch our legs and see the sights!

First stop was the famous Bloukrans Bridge, apparently the world's highest Bungy Jump!! Not for me thank you! But Holiday Harry was keen. Vicki said that there was an age restriction, you have to be over 18. Thank goodness, because Juanita was dying to go and Vicki's Mom said if she was 20 years younger she would have done it too!! Poor Vicki!!

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We watched a few people jump and my stomach jumped too!! It was exciting to watch though.

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We drove through the Tsitsikamma Forest and the next stop was Plettenberg Bay. Vicki drove us to Robberg Beach, (she knows the area well because her family used to come to the Beacon Isle Hotel for holidays when she was young), and there we saw a whale!! In the shallow waters rolling around and playing, flicking it's tale. Not easy to get a photo of though! I have been so lucky to see different kinds of South African wild life.

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In the car for the last stretch, the TV's remembered not to grumble!! Australian distances are also great, so it didn't bother me much.
We drove past George onto Mosselbay. I was confused, weren't we going to George?? Another very picturesque town. Vicki decided since it was only 40kms from George, we should get to see it too!

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And then we discovered why Vicki thought it was a good idea to see Mosselbay.....

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ANOTHER LIGHTHOUSE!!!
That makes it three in one holiday!! And Vicki reminded us it could have been four if we hadn't missed Cape Recife in Port Elizabeth! Juanita said she wasn't getting out the car!! She missed out, it was very pretty. Unfortunately (or fortunately!?) we arrived too late and the lighthouse keeper had already locked up.

We did get to walk around a bit, more beautiful vistas...

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There were Rock dassies everywhere. They lived in the rocks around the lighthouse. No bunnies??

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Back home in George, we had supper and prepared for the journey back to Johannesburg on Saturday. Vicki was not keen to go back to the 'rat race', she was happy to keep on driving, looking for more lighthouses.... nobody commented!
Vicki


Posted Sep 8, 2008, 9:06 am
Spring has sprung in Johannesburg!
Mrs C came to fetch Gilbert and we all hid in the Brunsfelsia that is growing outside Vicki's front door. It smells beautiful! Can you see all eight of us?

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We posed for a farewell photo.

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Vicki


Posted Sep 8, 2008, 9:50 am
Today we visited Museum Africa which is housed in the old fresh produce market (pity there isn't still some fresh produce there!!).

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There was a whole section on the prisoners who were tried for treason during the apartheid era.

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Newspaper cuttings with headlines from days gone by...

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There was a scene of a shebeen (the old illegal drinking houses) in Sofiatown, an old 'black' suburb from which the blacks were evicted to make way for 'whites'.

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There were also replicas of shanties or 'jondolos' (as they are commonly known). This is how some of the squatters live in the squatter camps. A lot of the people living like this are illegal immigrants coming from neighbouring countries to try and make a living.

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Vicki took a photo of me with the old South African flag, used before 1994.

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Had to pose for a photo.... Mrs C gave me a hand, you can see her feet sticking out, tee hee!

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Signing the register...

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Vicki went to the tourist information office and there we met Mr Mandela, standing next to the South African flag!

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Vicki


Posted Sep 11, 2008, 8:59 am
We were all very excited about the special invitation we had received! Threadbear and Eloise were getting married and we had all been invited to the wedding as honoured guests! What we didn't realise was how many guests there would be!!

Eloise looked beautiful.... and Threadbear looked so smart too.

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All the bears waiting to go to the Teddy Bear clinic were there too! We all watched as Eloise came down the isle. You could hear some 'aaahs' coming from the gathered guests.

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We listened to them say their "I do's" and then Threadbear kissed his bride.

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They walked back up the isle as man and wife.

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The bride and groom cut the cake and it was time to PARTY!!

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We eventually waved them goodbye...

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MrsC's house was a mess but the party continued into the early hours...


Vicki


Posted Sep 19, 2008, 10:42 am
Time to say goodbye to Purple Bun and Sputnik.... we will miss them, we have made good friends.

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Here I am with the South African flag!

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Vicki


Posted Sep 19, 2008, 10:51 am
We woke up all excited because we were visiting a place called Goblin's Cove. It was quite a drive out to Magaliesburg, this is a mountain range to the north west of Johannesburg. We finally arrived at this most enchanting place.

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The restaurant was full of little nooks and crannies with little fairies, goblins and elves everywhere.

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We had a great time out in the country, away from the city noise...

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Vicki


Posted Sep 19, 2008, 10:53 am
Time to say farewell to Grape Ape and send him off to his next adventure.

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Enjoy and take care...
Vicki


Posted Oct 19, 2008, 6:27 pm
Today was a public holiday. It was Heritage day and we were all invited to a 'braai' (or South African barbeque) at Ken's (Vicki's husband) friend's farm in Delmas, which was 90km away!!
We took the highway, there are roadworks because they are busy upgrading for the soccer in 2010.

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Vicki


Posted Oct 20, 2008, 5:30 am
Now we can continue with the update...
We travelled and travelled...

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Some of the other TV's were getting bored and impatient and Holiday Harry kept asking... 'Are we there yet?'

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This had to be the right off ramp, please?? I couldn't take Holiday Harry's moaning any more!

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We finally arrived and what a beautiful garden there was here. I promised not to dig any holes!

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Now here is a flag you won't see often anymore. It is the old Rhodesian flag! Ken and all his friends here today are originally from Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe of-course.

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We sat and relaxed watching the huge koi fish in this pond.

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Collin (the owner of the farm), found some abandoned donkeys and brought them home. He now has them as 'pets'! He complains because they are eating his prize roses though!

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Here is the 'braai', everyone enjoyed the boerewors (South African sausages), but I will stick with the veggies thanks.


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There were rooibok (red buck) and ostriches and chickens, dogs an cats, birds, donkeys, etc on the farm. Vicki said there were some bunnies too but I didn't see them!

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We had a lovely day with too much fresh air, we all dozed off on the way home.

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We crossed the border back into Gauteng province.

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There are many gold mines in this area, we passed this derilect old mine shaft.

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The city of Jozi (nickname for Johanesburg) in the distance.

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Finally, the off ramp to get us home...

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Vicki


Posted Oct 27, 2008, 8:06 am
We sat outside in the back garden, enjoying the sunshine, it was soooo hot!

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I found a shady spot amongst these pretty flowers...

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The pool looked so inviting.

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We all shared some yummy frozen yoghurt which helped us cool down.

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Vicki has been studying and we are all getting a little bored sitting around watching her.

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Vicki


Posted Oct 27, 2008, 8:37 am
Today Vicki and Juanita visitied Footprints, a children's home not far from where they live.

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The dog at the home had puppies and they were so cute! The children were running away from them because they were chewing their toes.

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We were all a bit nervous because the puppies wanted to chew anything in their sight!

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We had an enjoyable visit, the children were very happy to see us, we took sweets for them too.

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We travelled home in a terrible storm.

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Vicki and Nicholas made sushi for supper. It looked deeelicious!

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Another busy day...
Vicki


Posted Oct 27, 2008, 8:47 am
We welcomed Decker who arrived for his visit in SA.

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Vicki photographed us with some soon-to-be TV's that are waiting to be posted into the wide world for adventure. There is a wild dog, an 'aardvark' (anteater), a babboon and a rhinoceros too. Olly the ostrich will stay in SA and visit with Vicki for a while.

The gathering is also time for me to say goodbye to everyone. I am going to my next host in South Africa, her name is Julia and I will continue my South African adventures with her.

I will miss everyone at Vicki's house we have had a fantastic time travelling together...
Take care Jubilee Bunny, we will miss you too!!! Come back and visit soon.

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JLS


Posted Nov 10, 2008, 6:02 pm
After my lovely stay with Vicki and her great family, I left them to join my new host Julia. Julia also lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, and I’m very excited to see what we’re going to get up to together. She’s already told me about lots of upcoming adventures and I can’t wait to see more of her beautiful country.

We arrived home and I noticed how beautiful the moon is, so I got my best model face out and posed for some photos. It’s so hard being adored.
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Julia’s cat Jenny, is a little nervous of me but I’m hoping we’re going to become very good friends. Don’t worry, sararingham, Jenny doesn’t eat bunnies.
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I decided that I needed to check my appearance in the mirror before Julia took me on a brief tour of the garden.
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Julia decided that I should try out a bicycle and get some exercise. It was great fun and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds.
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JLS


Posted Nov 20, 2008, 7:03 pm
We were all excited about the trip out to Glenburn Lodge for Julia's boyfriends friend's wedding. Julia's boyfriend, Sean, picked us up and we started drivng the 30 minutes to the venue, just outside of Johannesburg.

Unfortunately on the way there, it started pouring down with rain, so the wedding involved a lot of running around at high speed from one sheltered place to another. So there was hardly a moment for photo's.
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The next morning, we took a short walk around the venue, because Sean's dad is very ill and was feeling quite bad, we had to head home very soon in the day.

Here's me by the beautiful Swartkops
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Here I am by the river, see how fast that water is running after the storm?
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We stopped off at the wedding venue the next morning and they were already setting up for the next function! What a nice venue!
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This is the road out of the venue, look at how high the river is!! It's flooded straight over the road!
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JLS


Posted Nov 20, 2008, 7:12 pm
Julia took me to work today! It was actually really really boring!!!!!!!!!

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JLS


Posted Dec 17, 2008, 7:23 pm
Sorry I've been so quiet! Julia has been working extra long hours so that she can finish all her work, before we leave for our trip! 2 days! Can you believe it? 2 days and I'll be seeing a whole new country for the 1st time! A proper african safari!

Aisha arrived today from the Ukraine! What a nice mouse and I'm so glad she's joining me in the bush, I was a little nervous about the trip.
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JLS


Posted Jan 12, 2009, 7:59 pm
We left for Botswana at 5pm on the 19th of December 2008. We met our guide in Lephalale on the border of South Africa and Botswana. We spent the night in campsite there and then continued our journey to Botswana the next day. The campsite was basic but had shady trees and decent bathrooms.
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We spent the night on a roof tent on top of the Landrover. It kept the mosquitos out and had a comfortable mattress.  http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3108/3191434273_59f77eceb4.jpg?v=0


Here we are relaxing on the bonnet on our first morning of the trip.
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We were travelling in Landrover Defenders and although these cars are big and bulky, they are also top heavy. About 20km into Botswana, while travelling on a dirt road, Julia’s boyfriend (Sean) sister, Talitha, nearly rolled the car. She tried to over take another car but left it too late and starting sliding on the sand. After much screaming, Sean’s younger brother, grabbed the steering wheel and forced her to keep the wheels straight and accelerate. My life flashed before my eyes and Julia had to apologise a thousand times to use before we calmed down.
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After driving for what seem like hours, we eventually got to our destination. The Magadikgadi Salt Pans, which you may have seen Jeremy Clarkson drive across in Top Gear. The pans are the size of Portugal. We spent the night at Kubu Island, and here you can see Julia, Sean and his dad, Haggis, at the start of the pans.
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To get to Kubu Island you have to drive a third of the way across the pans, over very slippery sand surface. Here Sean is with the Landies on the pans.
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As you drive into Kubu Island, the first thing you see is a giant Baobab tree and thats about it. There are houses for miles and miles around.
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We set up camp for the night camped under another Baobab.
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Sean took us up the baobab, so we could get a better view. The green plastic sheeting in front of the tree is our shower. The day had been so hot that the water we used that night was still warm.
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As we watched the sunset over the pans, we thanked our lucky stars that we were in beautiful Africa.
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JLS


Posted Jan 14, 2009, 5:48 pm
We barely slept a wink. Not only was it the hottest night of the year but there were all sorts of wild creatures about. The scorpions were huge and had the fattest tails you’ve ever seen. The spiders were roughly the size of an adult’s shoe. Apparently they’re called Red Roman spiders, and although they aren’t poisonous, they are huge and very nosey about their surroundings. We woke up at 3am to find a Red Roman spider, thankfully, on the outside of our tent. It was climbing all over, trying to find a way in. When it was finally time to get up, at 4am, we heard an owl hooting and then the screeching sound of an owl catching its prey. We then heard a small wild cat crying. So we think its mother was taken by an owl, although we couldn’t find the cat once we were out of the tent.

We climbed to the top of Kubu Island to watch the sunrise over the salt pans. A sight I will never forget. Unfortunately, Sean’s dad, who is busy recovering from Cancer, started feeling very sick this morning. So the mood was dampened. 
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While we were on top of Kubu Island, we came across a tree, that had over the years picked up a large rock and lifted it into the air as it grew.
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We left Kubu Island and drove through the salt pans once more. Here I am in the pans.http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3495/3191511557_049a75fc86.jpg?v=0


Here we are by the landrovers in the pans.
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We arrived at Xyga late that afternoon, but unfortunately Sean’s dad’s condition went from bad to worse and we had to drive him the 30 minutes to Maun hospital. We spent the next few days there, before he was airlifted back to Johannesburg. We later found out that he had had a brain aneurism and had slipped into a coma.
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We spent a 2 days at the Xyga campsite before he was moved, and we spent a lot of time in the swimming pool.
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Then we started to head back to South Africa
JLS


Posted Jan 14, 2009, 5:54 pm
On our way home, we were lucky enough to see Elephant on the side of the road in Botswana. We must have seen HUNDREDS of elephants, I couldn't believe our luck.
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They were everywhere!
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